number 34 • Winter 2018

The Public Interest

Social science and minority "set-asides"

Winter 1993

FOR THE PAST half century, government agencies and the courts have relied on social scientists to define and measure discrimination. The most famous result was the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which cited the work of Kenneth Clark, Gunnar Myrdal, and other social scientists to prove that segregation harmed black children. In countless decisions and reports since, social-science research has been used to attack racial classifications and stereotypes.